Hey! Look Over There!

Here's a little story for you...

I was walking my dog in a neighborhood near my home one evening last summer, when not one but two dogs belonging to a homeowner on the street charged us, barking fiercely. One dog had been in the front yard as we approached (on the opposite side of the street), and the second charged out the front door when someone entered. It was over in a minute or two: the woman of the house caught one dog by its collar, and someone visiting the house removed the second dog after he'd snarled at us for a minute or two.

Wisdom of the Crowd? I Think Not

Have you seen the new CBS drama “Wisdom of the Crowd”? Well, here’s the official series synopsis from the network: it’s “a drama about a visionary tech innovator who creates a cutting-edge crowdsourcing app to solve his daughter's murder, and revolutionize crime solving in the process. Inspired by the notion that a million minds are better than one, Silicon Valley entrepreneur Jeffrey Tanner, develops ‘Sophe,’ an online platform for publicly shared information he's certain will find his daughter's killer.”

Why Social Networks are More Antisocial than Not

Ever notice how some people just cannot stand it if you disagree with them? In olden days, it seems that – when people had to talk to each other face to face – if people disagreed, they’d talk it out. Maybe one would point out something the other had missed; gently correct a mistake, offer an alternative explanation. That no longer happens, at least on-line and especially if the two parties will never meet face to face. It’s not unreasonable to wonder if this is a result of the blue-ribbon for everyone generation and the Lake Woebegone effect… here: check out this exchange.

Big Yellow Bus Maniacs

I lived in the country as a kid, many long years ago, and until I was about sixteen I rode a big yellow school bus to school almost every day. A local farmer -- Suzy Hedges' dad -- drove that bus for most of those ten-plus years. I doubt that my Mom or Dad drove me to school on more than a couple of occasions in all those years, so the idea of driving your kids to school every day is completely foreign to me.

I first noticed this in Texas, where schools are designed with gigantic, switchbacking driveways so that parents' cars don't block the streets as school starts and ends. It doesn't always work, but that's not the point. Why, I wondered, don't these kids ride the buses that ply the streets like great yellow elephants?

Peter Heck is Intellectually Lazy

Is the Indy Star paying for Peter Heck’s column? Because if they are, they got ripped off by the installment in his weekly encyclical published on May 5. If I didn’t know better, I’d think Heck was in the bottom of a tequila bottle when he sent that one in. If you missed it (which you should), you can read it here (I linked to the Google cache version so you don’t put ad money in the moron’s coffers). Heck’s bio says he teaches high school history… I certainly hope he has higher standards for the research his students do than he apparently does for his column.

Life in the Bubble

I have a sister who, to be honest, is nothing like me -- especially when it comes to politics. She and my brother-in-law, one of the sweetest guys on the face of the earth if truth be told, live entirely in an evangelical Christian right-wing bubble. They don't watch television, don't go to movies, sent their kids to a Christian school, and listen to no radio except the local Christian station and AM talk radio. When we're together, we just don't talk politics -- it's non-productive.

Honesty: It’s Still the Best Policy

By now you’ve probably heard of Nextdoor.com – heck, you’ve probably been badgered to join. If you’re already familiar with the “neighborhood social media” site, feel free to skip to the next paragraph; if not, read on for background. It’s a website for those who are geographically neighbors instead of “friends.” You can connect with people in your housing addition, school district, little town, etc. – share information about what’s going on, announce garage sales, complain about potholes, and the like. There is, of course, a “social” component, which is why we’re here right now.

Hate Celebrities? Then Why'd You Vote for Trump?

It's a given that the dittoheads, errr natives of FoxNation, errr, residents of TrumpNation... hate celebrities (except, of course, Ronald Reagan, Sonny Bono, Charlton Heston, Fred Thompson...). The reason's obvious: many outspoken celebrities have views to the left of Attila the Hun. I don't know why, but I've always assumed it was because they worked like dogs in restaurants and bars while trying to get their careers off the ground -- in other words, they used tough, long-hour blue-collar jobs to finance their dreams. That's apparently beyond the pale for people who just use blue-collar jobs to afford a new JetSki or Harley. But we digress...

Lies, Statistics and Politics... Again

On the Indianapolis Star opinion page today (29 January, 2017) you can find a letter to the editor signed by all seven of the Indiana congresspersons. The fact that a state in which Republicans win statewide office with 50-57% of the vote has 78% Republican congressional representation is, in and of itself, a travesty... but that's not the point. No, the point is that the first paragraph of the letter says,

"Eight in 10 Americans believe we should significantly change or repeal Obamacare."

Paranoia Strikes Deep...

This came across my desk the other day... actually, it appeared on my local site on Nextdoor.com. A woman posted the following:

"We received a legit looking survey in the mail supposedly from the Census Bureau. Many personal questions were on it, some like the Census bureau would ask, but we noticed that it asked what time you leave for work and how long it takes you to get home. When we had not filled it out and returned it someone called and pressured us to answer it over the phone. We refused and he said he would be calling back. After that, I did a bit of research. According to consumeraffairs.com, the census bureau would NOT ask when you leave for work and when you return."